M.O.R.E.: Not Quite 7

Sunday, August 16, 2009

Not Quite 7

Today was supposed to be our "cycle down" week and we were supposed to run 7 miles with our marathon group. I say supposed to because we were actually short by 1/2 mile. I knew we would be short when we stopped at the Starbucks for a bathroom break on Valencia and McBean and my Garmin said we only ran 5.8 miles so far and I knew there was no way that we were going to get another 1.2 miles to Granary Square from there. Just to verify, I checked with another runner with a Garmin when we finished and she got exactly the same as me. Oh well, I guess it doesn't matter too much that it wasn't exactly 7 miles since this is our low mileage week. Poor C had to use the restroom almost from the beginning and we didn't actually get to one until our very last mile. Here I am talking about bathroom stops again, which bugs Patty but then since she didn't run with us today I guess it's okay. As we were heading back, I told C how funny perspective can be. I remember not too long ago we would all get stressed out about having to do a long run like 6 or 7 miles and now 7 miles is considered an "easy" run. I have to say, it did feel rather easy, except for the first 2 miles when a nice hill was involved. That's another thing I noticed about the runs with the marathon group. No matter what distance, the trainer always seems to throw in a hill or two.

C, her daughter, and I opted to have coffee at the Starbucks near Corner Bakery, which was sort of a mistake. As we were sitting outside drinking our coffee, the slower runners and the ones that opted to do 10 miles ended up running by us and seeing us enjoying our coffee. We felt kind of guilty because we didn't stay for coffee with the group and also because they probably thought we just stopped running there and decided to have a coffee break in the middle of our run.

2 comments:

Patty said...: That is so funny about the coffee, how many times have we said while we were running "lets just go get coffee"! It is so amazing how the mind works in relationship to running 7 miles a couple of months ago would have been a long run, and now it is an easy one. Hmm, I wonder if soon 14 miles will seem like an easy run? (Probably not) I am glad to be back, see you tonight.; August 17, 2009 at 7:04 AM
marathon mom said...: I thought that was kind of commical and ironic too because of all the times we have said "Can't we just stop here and have coffee instead?". And that's exactly what it looked like we did.; August 17, 2009 at 7:48 AM

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Favorite Trails

South Fork 3.1: Start from dirt parking lot on Magic Mtn Pkway and run to the loop at Wiley Bridge and return the same way.

Tesoro 3.25: Start in Albertson parking lot and take sidewalk/trail until it ends and then enter the water tower road to the top two towers where the ends. Return the same way.

Chesebrough 3.25/4.60: From Chesebrough Park, N. to Copperhill, So. on Bike Trail, turn around at Decoro, back up trail to power lines to bridge at park. Turn around at Heritage will give you 4.6 miles.

Chesebrough 3.5: Chesebrough Park down to McBean, south to Northpark Dr., the paseo trailhead. Take the paseo to Helmers and back. Very hilly.

Bridgeport 4.0: Fairly flat, run toward Lowes and under Bouquet bridge to RiverPark community until you reach the closed gates and return. For a hilly run, go north into Helmers and run up the paseo switchbacks into Northpark where the paseo ends and return the same way.

Chesebrough 4.0: N. to Copperhill to west side of river trail, run S. on Bike Trail past Decoro bridge, across Decoro to the east side of river trail, up back to power lines trail, back to park.

Chesebrough 4.0: From park down power line trail to Heritage Park and back same way.

Bridgeport 4.0: From School, cross McBean via bridge or street and head into industrial center on Ave. Scott Bridge and enter bike trail going south toward the train bridge. Turn around at train bridge and return same way or cross the bridge and head toward Peet's after crossing train bridge and back onto the Lowes Trail.

Heritage 4.0: From park, run up bike trail to Decoro, over McBean Bridge into Helmers, and into Bridgeport through lake trail back to park. Can be done in reverse. Moderately hilly.

Chesebrough 4.25: Chesebrough north to Copperhill, left to Albertson side of bike trail. Run south on trail to Decoro and cross over bridge and head north all the way to Copperhill on east side of river trail and back to the park the same way as started.

Cheese/Decoro/Helmers 4.25: From the park, down dirt trail to bike path, south to Decoro. Leave bike path at Decoro and cross paseo bridge at McBean. Stay on paseo up hill towards Helmers. Run up water tower trail once then continue on to switchbacks and paseos back to park.

Heritage/Bridgeport 3.3: Heritage Park south to McBean Bridge @ Panera. Cross and head toward Lowes bike trail and head east toward Bridgeport Park. Halfway mark is at park bathroom, head back by entering trail along the lake and back onto the bridge.

Lowes 4.25: Lowe's parking lot to McBean, cross the bridge and to South Fork. At Valencia Bridge, enter trail behind Hart Baseball diamonds. Continue on trail to Bouquet and across the bridge on the east side and back under the bridge again towards Lowes.

Peet's & Decoro 5.2: Peet's Coffee to train bridge path; to Decoro and across bridge; back down McBean side of bike trail back to Peete's.

Peet's & Wiley 6.0: Start at Peet's Coffee and head east toward South Fork trail and past the Wiley Bridge. Keep running another 200 yards to where the trail forks left and right. Turn back same way.

Peet's & Copperhill 6.0: From Peet's to bike trail heading north to Copperhill and back.

Albertson 7.0: From the Albertson parking lot on Copperhill, enter the westside bike trail and head south until the train bridge. Return the same way.

Peet's 8.5: Run to Copperhill on east side of river trail and return via train bridge on other side.

Lowes 10: Start in the Lowes parking lot. Enter the bike trail heading west. At McBean, cross the bridge and head east toward SouthFork trail. Continue on trail until you come to the Wiley bridge and head back the same way.

McBean 14: This route can be done from anywhere along the trail route. Starting from McDonald's across the post office, run to the end of the South Fork trail and return the same way, cross the McBean bridge and run on the Lowes trail until you hit Bridgeport Elementary and then cross Newhall Ranch via the bridge or street and run back towards McBean. Continue north on McBean until you hit Copperhill. At Copperhill, cross McBean and enter San Francisquito bike trail and run south on the trail until you are back at McDonalds.